Expose your students to face their fears and overcome obstacles. Encourage them to find themselves and grow into the person they're meant to be. Make teaching a breeze with ready-made activities and prompts to stimulate student comprehension. Identify statements about life in Mafatu's village as true or false. Find the synonyms to key vocabulary words found in the novel. Imagine how Mafatu's life would be different had his mother been alive. Predict whether Mafatu will survive on the island and return to his village a new man. Explain what Mafatu believed brought him to safety. Create a board game, using a map of the island as a base. Create a set of rules and cards with questions, then play the game in small groups. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: Call It Courage is a Newbery Medal-winning story about a boy who tries to overcome his fear of the sea by facing it. Set in the Pacific Islands, the story follows Mafatu, the son of the chief of Hikueru Island. After watching his mother die, Mafatu develops a fear of the sea, which brings his father shame. In order to no longer be seen as a coward among his tribe, Mafatu takes a canoe out into the ocean. He ends up lost and deserted on an island, forced to fend for himself. During his encounters on the island, Mafatu slowly faces and overcomes his fears, eventually returning home a new man.

Unravel the secrets at the center of an intriguing murder mystery game. Activities are meant to excite students throughout the reading. Using the chapter titles as clues, predict what might happen in each one. Identify elements of foreshadowing from the novel, and imagine what will take place. Follow the clues in the story to solve the game before any of the characters. Identify cause and effect by explaining why each event happened. Keep track of the variety of characters with comprehension questions. Students will write their own prologue and epilogue at the completion of the reading. Compare two different character's perspectives of the same event from the novel. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: The Westing Game is a Newbery Medal winning story about a group of people playing the game of who killed the millionaire. Samuel W. Westing, owner of Westing Paper Products, has died. Sixteen heirs are invited to live in the Sunset Towers apartment building. These heirs come together to read the will of the late self-made millionaire. The will challenges them to solve the murder of Sam Westing by splitting up into eight pairs. Each pair is given a set of clues and $10,000 dollars to play the game. The winner will inherit the $200,000,000 fortune and unravel the secret behind the old man's death.

Experience the miracle of understanding that we all take for granted. An ideal play for students with a low reading level. Gain insight into the difficulties of being blind and/or deaf. Put events from the novel in order as they happened when Annie and Helen were eating dinner. Students attempt to understand the motivations of the characters in the play. Find the synonym of the vocabulary word from the text. Explain the event in Helen's past that made it possible for her to realize what 'water' was. Research the real-life location of Ivy Green and plan a field trip to this important location. Identify all the problems and their solutions in a chart. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: This story is an emotional and vivid portrayal of the relationship between a child and her teacher. Helen Keller is rendered deaf and blind at an early age, and by the time she is six years old, her behavior becomes completely unmanageable. In desperation, her parents send for teacher Annie Sullivan to bring some discipline into the spoiled child’s life. Helen and Annie become locked in a ferocious battle of wills, but Annie is determined to bring a sense of discipline into Helen’s life. Annie teaches Helen words by constantly spelling them into Helen’s palm. Although Helen can spell them back, she doesn’t understand that these words actually represent things. At the water pump Annie spells “water” into Helen’s hand and suddenly the miracle happens—Helen understands.

Sail the seas to quench your thirst for gold in this tale of piracy, adventure and betrayal. Help students better understand the novel with in-depth comprehension and vocabulary questions. Match the characters introduced in the novel to their descriptions. Draw the map that Jim finds in Billy's chest. Summarize what Jim heard in the apple barrel. Explain who the character of Ben Gunn is, and how he ended up on the island. Using multiple choice, identify the characters who said the provided quotes. Students write their own pirate ditty to be sung while sailing. Identify the character who has the biggest influence on Jim Hawkins, and describe their relationship and how it affects the outcome of the story. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: Treasure Island is one of the most perfect examples of an exciting classic adventure tale. Masterfully crafted, this stunning book of piracy on the tropic seas is an unforgettable tale of treachery between good and evil. Developed from an imaginary map that Stevenson and his stepson made while on vacation, Treasure Island is an all-time classic for those who love romance and adventure. Perhaps the reason for the book's allure to children is the famous hero-villain character of Long John Silver, with his unscrupulous buccaneer-rogues on their quest for gold.

See how the basic need for survival can break down barriers in this gripping story of overcoming prejudices. Challenge students to think deeply about the themes presented in this story. Imagine the hindrances experienced by those with a disability, and in what ways they are able to overcome them. Identify different statements from the novel as proof Timothy and Philip will be rescued or they will perish. Complete sentences from the book with their missing vocabulary words. Students share a time when they overcame a fear to accomplish a task. Using the author's descriptive language, describe the storm that hits the little island. Using the description Timothy provides to Phillip, research the tea bird and draw a picture of it along with a fact sheet. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: The Cay is a story about a man and a boy who get stranded on an island and struggle to survive with each other. 11-year-old Phillip Enright and his mother board a ship to Virginia in the hopes of escaping the German submarines that are surrounding the area around Curaçao. Along the way, the ship gets torpedoed by one such submarine. Phillip is blinded and stranded out to sea with an old African American man named Timothy and a cat named Stew Cat. The group find themselves on a tiny island, where they survive by fishing and collecting rain water. During their time, Timothy and Phillip struggle to work together, partly due to Phillip's racial prejudices. In the end, the two must learn to work together in the hopes of survival and eventual rescue.

Experience this powerful story about childhood innocence, friendship and suffering set at Auschwitz Concentration Camp during World War II. Assess students' comprehension of the novel and explore their personal reactions to the events of the book. Imagine what Bruno sees from his bedroom window that makes him feel cold and unsafe. Explore Bruno's state of mind by detailing the lesson he learns from his conversation with Maria, and what experiences he thinks he shares with her. Identify statements about the story as either Bruno or his mother's description of Herr Roller. Match vocabulary words from the novel with their meanings. Describe how Bruno's perspective is different from Gretel's because he is getting to know Maria, Pavel and Schmuel. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a classic story told from the point of view of a young German boy as he befriends a Jewish boy at a concentration camp. Nine-year-old Bruno lives with his family at Auschwitz Concentration Camp. They move there when Bruno's father is prompted to Commandant. While at his new home, Bruno meets and befriends a young boy named Shmuel who lives on the other side of the wire fence that surrounds the camp. One day, Bruno's mother convinces his father to let the family move back to Berlin. Before they leave, Bruno disguises himself and sneaks into the camp to help his friend find his missing father.